Life of a Pastor Blog

Having been through several hurricanes while living on the coast of Texas, I am aware of the great need in a devastated community.  What happened in Joplin is unfathomable.  Yet in the midst of all their heartache we can be a help.  One of the greatest things we witnessed in the aftermath of hurricanes was the outpouring of compassion from outside our community.

Joplin is only an hour away and we can touch their lives through the hands of others.  I have been in contact with two different groups who will be on the ground in Joplin.  The NW Arkansas food bank has recommended a ministry that we can work with that will be taking items to Joplin this week.  They have been making daily runs to Joplin to hand out items that have been donated by good people from our area.  They are delivering the items to the affected people and their neighborhoods rather than setting up a trailer and making them wait in line to get things they need.

ITEMS NEEDED right away:

Hygiene items: Toothpaste and Toothbrushes, Combs, Hairbrushes, Soap, Shampoo, Germ-X, etc.

Baby Items: Diapers, Diaper Wipes & Baby Formula

Towels & Washcloths (New or Used)

Please bring these to church by tomorrow evening.  Our ministry contact will come by and pick them up to deliver on Thursday.

We will also be working with the Section 1 Assemblies of God to get items to Joplin next week.  Our section has been in contact with the Joplin section and we will be working closely with them and Convoy of Hope.  Joplin’s AG churches were hard hit. One church was completely destroyed and several others sustained major damage. 

Items that are needed by Wednesday June 1st:

bottled water
canned food
dry food
clothing
shoes
personal items(toiletry, etc.)

Please drop off at the church by Wednesday, June 1st.

There is also a place to donate to Convoy of Hope online: Click Here to Donate. Or you can give at the church and we will forward the money to Convoy of Hope or the Joplin Section of the Assemblies of God.  The church will be sending an offering to the church that sustained a total loss.

Thanks for your help and sacrificial giving.  God honors us when we have compassion on others.  Please continue to pray for all those affected by this horrific disaster.

This spring has been wet!  Storms have come and gone.  Some severe, some just rain.  I love thunderstorms.  From the clouds that they make, to the sound of heavy rain on the roof.  Call me crazy but I love the sound of hail crashing down on the roof or hearing it ping off of metal.

Many people do not have this same liking for storms.  Especially when it comes to spiritual storms.  The storms of life are often hard to bear.  They blow through our lives and sometimes we wonder what hit us.

The truth is, they make us better.  Storms in our lives are meant to leave us stronger.  The more storms we face the easier it is to weather them.  I remember as a child being terrified of thunder and lightning.  I would run to my parents side when the weather would get bad.  Now, however, its different.  In my lifetime I have been through 4 hurricanes and probably a dozen tropical storms and depressions.  Storms don’t seem to faze me as much.

The more we face the hardships of life, the more we lean on Christ and know that He will see us through.  The storms may hurt and the pains may sting, but through it all we endure by the grace of God.

I read this morning in Proverbs 20:30, “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.”

Storms and trials have a cleansing effect in our lives.  The floods many places are experiencing right now, find the debris moving down stream.  Sometimes God uses the storms to move the debris from our lives and make us more like Him.  Weather the Storm. God is a refuge and strength.  A very present help in time of need.

Charlie Peace was a criminal.  Laws of God or man curbed him not.  Finally the law caught up with him and condemned him to death.  On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk.  Before him went the prison chaplain, reading some Bible verses.  The criminal touched the preacher and asked him what he was reading.  “The Consolations of Religion,” was the reply. 

Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he read so professionally about hell.  Could man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believer the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase without a tremor? Is a man human at all that can say with no tears, “You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings”?

All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached.  Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon.

“Sir,” addressing the preacher, “if I believed what you and the church of God say you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”

Excerpted from Leonard Ravenhill’s Why Revival Tarries.

Saturday, Josh, my dad and I went for a hike to one of my favorites trails in NWA.  With all the rain we have had, I was excited to get out and see if the creek bed that runs through the trail would be full.  When we got to the creek bed, it had water coming into it from Beaver Lake, but the bed itself was dry.  Turns out that this is a dry bed that never runs with water. 

Flowers were in bloom, trees green and the trail was beautiful.

on the way home from Little Rock yesterday, Sonya and I drove through Petit Jean State Park.  This is one of the most beautiful places in the state of Arkansas.

I know I need to lose weight but am slow at getting back to my exercise routine.  This cartoon made me feel better and perhaps gives me an idea.

As most of the Christian world knows, David Wilkerson, pastor of Times Square Church in New York City and founder of Teen Challenge, passed away last week in a car wreck.  David Wilkerson has been a hero of mine for many years.  He was never been enticed with fame and fortune and modeled living a godly life throughout his time on earth.

If you have followed David Wilkerson much through the years, you would come to understand the suffering that he and his family endured.  From bouts with disease to other hardships.  Yet through it all he was consistent in his faith.

Wilkerson’s funeral was today and Steven Strang, Charisma Magazine editor, shares the following story from the memorial service.  It deals with the question of why we must suffer.

Strang writes:

“Once two of his teenage grandsons, who were going through a time of questioning, asked him, “If there is a God, why is there suffering?” Wilkerson, who obviously had far more life experience than his grandsons, admitted he didn’t know the answer any more than they did, but he noticed that often those who complain the most do the least to help the hurting—and he would rather be busy with helping those who suffer.”

What a convicting answer to that question!  Wilkerson didn’t say that to deflect his grandson’s question.  He replied that way because that is how he lived his life.  Helping the hurting in New York City.  Walking alongside those who suffer, even when he himself was suffering.

There are few men in this world like David Wilkerson.  My prayer is that I could live a consistent life such as his and leave my mark on this world just as he did.

I have heard of people getting paid not to do something.  I thought it would be a good idea to get into that line of work.  I found this form letter to help me get on the government payroll.  Feel free to use it as well

Dear Uncle Sam:

My friend Bill Jones over in Runnels County received a check from the government for $1000 for not raising hogs. So I plan on going into the "not raising hogs" business next year.

What I want to know…in your opinion…what is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on? And, what are the best kinds of hogs NOT to raise? I would prefer not to raise razor-backs, but if that is not a good breed not to raise, I will gladly not raise Berkshires or Durocs.

The hardest work in this business is going to be in keeping an inventory of how many hogs I am not raising.

If I can get $1000 for not raising 50 hogs, then will I get $2000 for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4,000 hogs, which means I will have $80,000 at the beginning. Then I can afford to buy that boat I’ve always wanted.

Now another thing…these hogs I will not be raising will not eat at least 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also pay farmers for not raising corn. So will you pay me anything for not raising 100,000 bushels of corn for not feeding the hogs I’m not going to raise?

I want to get started as soon as possible…as this seems to be a good time of the year for not raising hogs. Please let me hear from you soon.

Yours very truly,

I. M. Broke

P.S. Can I raise 10 or 12 hogs on the side while I’m in the "not raising hogs" business…just so I’ll have something to eat?

HT: Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations: Signs of the Times.

This morning, I read a thought about the resurrection.  Something that I have never considered.  Justin Buzzard brings up a powerful point about our Savior.

He writes:

On a Friday afternoon Jesus was taken from the cross, dead.

On Sunday afternoon he walked seven miles to Emmaus.

Jesus is alive!

The man who was betrayed, beaten, mocked, crucified, and laid in a tomb is now hiking the seven miles to Emmaus. Nothing can beat Jesus.

Happy Easter.

God is…

gracious and kind
all-knowing and all-powerful
merciful and longsuffering
forgiving and forgetful (forgiving our sins and forgetting them)
loving and stable
passionate and compassionate
beautiful and strong
invisible yet knowable
infinite yet personal
concerned and listening
strong yet meek
enduring and faithful
peaceful and protecting
helpful and full of hope

God is…

Everything!

God is…

All you need!

I remember when Josh was little he had a gift for sword fighting.  He was, what I would consider, a 6 year old Jedi Master.  Josh would dominate with his light saber or any thing else he could use as a sword.  He hit hard so he went through swords pretty quick. 

Tonight, when no one was at the house (mom and brother gone), I started training another Jedi.  This time a Jedi Princess!  She looks pretty tough doesn’t she?

By now you know my love for cartoons.  Some people understand my humor and some don’t.  But these two cartoons I couldn’t resist posting.

This first one I read after preaching the last chapter of Colossians Wednesday night.  We went through the list of names Paul recognized for their ministry.

Any cartoon with Charlie Brown is a favorite of mine.  Charlie Brown is my hero.  I identify with him.  Snoopy’s book title reminds me of the church world today.  We all think we are the only one’s right

The only way that your children will grow beyond their dependency into self-sufficient adults is for you to essentially abandon your own independence for twenty years or so…You can make the sacrifice, or they’re going to make the sacrifice. It’s them or you. Either you suffer temporarily and in a redemptive way, or they’re going to suffer tragically, in a wasteful and destructive way. -Tim Keller, King’s Cross

HT: Buzzard Blog

I have been reading a biography of Smith Wigglesworth, the healing evangelist of the early 20th century.  It is a fascinating look at a man who walked with God and saw tremendous miracles in his lifetime.

History reveals that Wigglesworth saw the multitudes healed as well as many who were raised from the dead.  In the book Secret of His Power, the author recalls one of the secrets of Wigglesworth’s power, a love for the Word of God.

Read closely what the author writes about Smith Wigglesworth:

“Two things dominated Wigglesworth’s life and ministry.  Firstly, he had a consuming love for the Word of God.  Secondly, he had an overwhelming confidence in the God of the Word.  What the Word of God said on a subject settled the matter as far as Wigglesworth was concerned.  He proved that he was willing to stake His life on what the Bible said…Wigglesworth never went more that fifteen minutes without reading the Word of God, regardless of where he was or in whose company he found himself.” [Smith Wigglesworth: Secret of His Power by Albert Hibbert on the NOOK]

I am challenged to deepen my hunger for the Word of God.  I am stirred to spend more time memorizing and studying God’s Holy Book.  Furthermore, I am convicted and awakened to believe the GOD OF THE WORD!